Computing systems and data are important resources that are often crucial to the operations of various types of organizations, such as business enterprises and governmental entities. Failures that affect the computing systems and data used by organizations may cause periods of unplanned downtime and data loss that could threaten an organization's productivity, reputation, and bottom line. Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of these risks and are taking measures to plan for and recover from such failures.
As modern computing environments become increasingly complex, adequately protecting these important resources can also become increasingly difficult. Consider, as an example, a data center that implements one or more applications. The applications may be logically inter-related or inter-related by virtue of their common dependence on virtualization technology, various shared storage configurations, and multiple types of network access. The field of disaster recovery has as an objective the ability to ensure that in the event of some unplanned occurrence, such as a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other catastrophic failure, the computing systems and data used by the applications running in such an environment are protected from unexpected unavailability. Doing so involves the establishment and maintenance of disaster recovery systems.
Testing of disaster recovery systems is good practice and increases confidence that the disaster recovery systems are able to effectively protect the resources the disaster recovery systems are intended to protect. However, there are challenges associated with testing disaster recovery systems. For example, doing so can affect both the functioning of the resources being protected, and the readiness of disaster recovery systems to respond to disasters. It is desirable to prevent any impact or interference that could result from testing the disaster recovery systems.
While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments of the disclosure are provided as examples in the drawings and detailed description. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description are not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular form disclosed. Instead, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.